Head of Chadian army claims troops kill Belmoktar

FILE - This image taken from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. The head of Chad's military has announced Saturday March 2, 2013, on state television that Chadian troops deployed in northern Mali have killed Moktar Belmoktar, the international terrorist responsible for the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the death of dozens of foreigners. The French military, which is leading the offensive in northern Mali, says it cannot confirm the information. (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE. MANDATORY CREDIT: SITE Intel Group

FILE - This image taken from video provided by the SITE Intel Group made available Thursday Jan. 17, 2013, purports to show militant militia leader Moktar Belmoktar. The head of Chad's military has announced Saturday March 2, 2013, on state television that Chadian troops deployed in northern Mali have killed Moktar Belmoktar, the international terrorist responsible for the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that resulted in the death of dozens of foreigners. The French military, which is leading the offensive in northern Mali, says it cannot confirm the information. (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAS NO WAY OF INDEPENDENTLY VERIFYING THE CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS PICTURE. MANDATORY CREDIT: SITE Intel Group

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) ? Chad's military chief announced late Saturday that his troops deployed in northern Mali had killed Moktar Belmoktar, the terrorist who orchestrated the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that left 36 foreigners dead.

The French military, which is leading the offensive against al-Qaida-linked rebels in Mali, said they could not immediately confirm the information.

Local officials in Kidal, the northern town that is being used as the base for the military operation, cast doubt on the assertion, saying Chadian officials are attempting to score a PR victory to make up for the significant losses they have suffered in recent days.

Known as the "one-eyed," Belmoktar's profile soared after the mid-January attack and mass hostage-taking on a huge Algerian gas plant. His purported death comes a day after Chad's president said his troops had killed Abou Zeid, the other main al-Qaida commander operating in northern Mali.

If both deaths are confirmed, it would mean that the international intervention in Mali had succeeded in decapitating two of the pillars of al-Qaida in the Sahara.

"Chad's armed forces in Mali have completely destroyed a base used by jihadists and narcotraffickers in the Adrar and Ifoghas mountains" of northern Mali, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Zakaria Ngobongue said in a televised statement on state-owned National Chadian Television. "The provisional toll is as follows: Several terrorists killed, including Moktar Belmoktar."

The French military moved into Mali on Jan. 11 to push back militants linked to Belmoktar and Abou Zeid and other extremist groups who had imposed harsh Islamic rule in the north of the vast country and who were seen as an international terrorist threat.

France is trying to rally other African troops to help in the military campaign, since Mali's military is weak and poor. Chadian troops have offered the most robust reinforcement.

In Paris, French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said that he had "no information" on the possibility that Belmoktar was dead. The Foreign Ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.

A spokesman for Chad's presidential palace did not immediately return a request for comment.

In Kidal in northern Mali, an elected official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said that he did not believe that Belmoktar was dead and waved off the claim as an attempt by Chad to explain the loss of dozens of their troops to a grieving nation.

"These last few weeks, the Chadians have lost a significant number of soldiers in combat. (Claiming that they killed Belmoktar) is a way to give some importance to their intervention in Mali," said the official, who keeps in close contact with both French and Malian commanders in the field.

Belmoktar, an Algerian, is believed to be in his 40s, and like his sometimes partner and sometimes rival, Abou Zeid, he began on the path to terrorism after Algeria's secular government voided the 1991 election won by an Islamic party.

Both men joined the Armed Islamic Group, or GIA, and later its offshoot, the GSPC, a group that carried out suicide bombings on Algerian government targets.

Around 2003, both men crossed into Mali, where they began a lucrative kidnapping business, snatching European tourists, aid workers, government employees and even diplomats and holding them for multimillion-dollar ransoms.

The Algerian terror cell amassed a significant war chest, and joined the al-Qaida fold in 2006, renaming itself al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Belmoktar claims he trained in Afghanistan in the 1990s, including in one of Osama Bin Laden's camps. It was there that he reportedly lost an eye, earning him the nickname "Laaouar," Arabic for "one-eyed."

Until last December, Belmoktar and Abou Zeid headed separate brigades under the flag of al-Qaida's chapter in the Sahara. But after months of reports of infighting between the two, Belmoktar peeled off, announcing the creation of his own terror unit, still loyal to the al-Qaida ideology but separate from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

It was this group that launched the fatal attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in southeastern Algeria in retaliation for the French-led military intervention in Mali.

In the attack and in the subsequent rescue attempt, 37 people, all but one of them foreigners, were killed inside the complex. Belmoktar claimed responsibility for the attack within hours, immediately catapulting him into the ranks of international terrorists.

In addition to the alleged killing of Belmoktar, Ngobongue said that Chad's military had also nabbed 60 of the jihadists' cars, electronic equipment and weapons. "The raid is still ongoing," he said.

___

Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Baba Ahmed contributed from Bamako, Mali.

___

Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi

Baba Ahmed can be reached at www.twitter.com/babahmed1

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-02-AF-Mali-Belmoktar/id-2ab8591119bb4cad85db9464efdabbb7

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Jedi Mind Meld: Obama Can't Budge Congress, Use Correct Star Wars Lingo

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/jedi-mind-meld-obama-cant-budge-congress-use-correct-star-wars-l/

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President Obama blasts GOP on cuts

President Barack Obama speaks about the sequester after a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House??

Declaring ?I am not a dictator,? President Barack Obama urged Americans on Friday to help him pressure Republicans to help halt painful automatic government spending cuts. Obama acknowledged that the $85 billion ?sequestration? would not be the end of the world but warned that it would slow the tepid recovery and cost jobs.

"This is not going to be an apocalypse, I think, as people have said," the president underlined. "It's just dumb. And it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt individual people and it's going to hurt the economy overall."

Obama spoke in the White House briefing room shortly after meeting with Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The talks failed to yield a breakthrough to prevent the cuts from going in force by midnight.

"If Congress comes to its senses a week from now, a month from now, three months from now, then there's a lot of open running room there for us to grow our economy much more quickly," Obama said.

Apparently stung by criticisms that he has overhyped the possible damage from sequestration for political gain, Obama pointed to government workers?notably the janitors who mop the Capitol floors?who will get a pay cut as well as small businesses that rely on dwindling government contracts, and warned of a "ripple effect" through the broader economy.

"I don?t anticipate a huge financial crisis, but people are going to be hurt," the president said. "We?re not making that up, that?s not a scare tactic."

Obama said some Republicans have privately signaled they would accept tax revenue increases as part of a compromise to replace sequestration, while some Democrats agree with his calls to overhaul Medicare.

?So there is a caucus of common sense up on Capitol Hill, it?s just it?s a silent group right now,? the president said. ?In the coming days and in the coming weeks I?m going to keep on reaching out to them.?

?I am prepared to do hard things and to push my Democratic friends to do hard things. But what I can?t do is ask middle-class families, ask seniors, ask students to bear the entire burden of deficit reduction," he said. "It's not fair, it's not right."

Obama said Republican leaders like House Speaker John Boehner face resistance to a grand bargain from rank-and-file GOP lawmakers who like to ?paint horns on my head.?

Obama, pressed by a reporter on how much responsibility he bears for the standoff, tried to turn the tables: ?What more do you think I should do??

"I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that's been floating around Washington that somehow, even though most people agree that I'm being reasonable, that most people agree I'm presenting a fair deal, the fact that they [Republicans] don't take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what's right," he said. (His "Jedi mind-meld" drew swift derision on Twitter, chiefly from conservatives, for mixing the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises.)

Obama has accused Republicans of refusing to raise "a dime's worth" of new tax revenues by closing loopholes that chiefly benefit the wealthiest Americans and rich corporations in order to reduce the deficit. Republicans have countered that revenues raised that way should not go to pay for government spending but to lower tax rates, which they say will create jobs.

"I?d like to think that I?ve still got some persuasive power left " Obama said.

But "I?m not a dictator, I?m the president," he emphasized, saying it was beyond his power to "force Congress to do the right thing" unless the American people help squeeze congressional Republicans.

Rachel Hartman contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-discuss-sequestration-11-35-m-163015466--politics.html

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Seacrest dodges wedding question at 'Idol' event

NEW YORK (AP) ? Ryan Seacrest can tell you lot about the evolution of American Idol over the last twelve seasons, but the host is a bit more reluctant to discuss the evolution of his relationship with actress Julianne Hough.

When asked by The Associated Press if there was a wedding date in his future, Seacrest casually responded: "Are you getting married?"

Seacrest and Hough have been together since the spring of 2010.

After a few playful rounds of "Are you?" banter on the subject, he decided to call it a day.

Seacrest made the comments Friday while promoting "Idol Across America," a relay of the "American Idol" microphone across the country, taking a page from the Olympic torch relay.

As for the prospect of the microphone making it one piece, Seacrest says if not, "I'm sure there's one in a holster standing by if it breaks."

___

Online:

www.americanidol.com

Twitter:

Follow John Carucci at http://www.twitter.com/jcarucci

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seacrest-dodges-wedding-idol-event-235027415.html

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New way to keep PCs cool: Submerge them in goo

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 3 hrs.

The scourge of the hot computer isn't limited to lap-scalding notebooks. The enormous datacenters used by the likes of Facebook and Google generate immense amounts of heat and cost a fortune in air conditioning. But there's a new option: Dip the whole computer in heat-dissipating goo.

Most computers these days are air-cooled with fans. (You can often hear one spinning up if your computer is working hard on a task.)

Higher-end computers such as custom gaming rigs may resort to water cooling, which uses cool water in copper pipes to absorb and whisk away more heat than air alone. Even exotic materials like liquid nitrogen or hydrogen can be used in extreme circumstances.

But those aren't suitable for applying to the thousands of servers in a Facebook datacenter. Unfortunately, the most common solution seems to be huge air-conditioning and venting systems, along with using naturally cool locations ? a solution that could have ecological implications.

A company called Iceotope has what it thinks is the best of both worlds: putting the whole server "blade" (the individual hardware component of a server "farm") inside a container full of a special liquid called Novec. Made by 3M, it's specially engineered to dissipate heat, doing so 20 times faster than water ? and 1,000 times faster than air.

But the key is that Novec doesn't conduct electricity at all, meaning that a computer or any electronic device can sit in it and run, happy as a clam. The researchers who came up with the technique demonstrate the benefits of Novec this in the following video, which shows mobile phones being dunked and functioning perfectly well:

The server works at high capacity and produces lots of heat, which spreads out quickly through the Novec bath. The module's enclosure is made of aluminum, which also conducts heat well, outside of which is an array of running pipes, filled with cool water. This fast-moving water draws out the heat and then gets promptly pumped out.

As a result, the cost of keeping the datacenters cool is massively reduced (and they're quieter, to boot). A "rack" of servers might take several kilowatts of power for its fans and venting, but Iceotope's use only a small fraction of that ? 80 watts or less. And the outgoing water is easier to handle than hot air and could even be used for purposes such as residential heating.

The first to deploy the system is the University of Leeds, which helped test and develop the server modules. They'll be using it to run engineering students' computer models ? and routing the warmed water through radiators to heat the lab.

This sort of system is great for Google and its big-data ilk, but what about consumers? For now, the system is too specialized for use in laptops, or for that matter smartphones, which occasionally also get hot to the touch. It's not out of the question, but this magic liquid will probably take some time to trickle down, so to speak, to ordinary users.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/new-way-keep-pcs-cool-submerge-them-goo-1C8603909

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State Dept: No major objections to Canada pipeline

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2013, file photo, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D, points at a illustration of existing pipeline, while speaking at a news conference about the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Capitol Hill in Washington. The State Department on Friday, March 1, 2013, raised no major objections to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and said other options to get the oil from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change. But the latest environmental review stops short of recommending whether the project should be approved. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2013, file photo, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D, points at a illustration of existing pipeline, while speaking at a news conference about the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Capitol Hill in Washington. The State Department on Friday, March 1, 2013, raised no major objections to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and said other options to get the oil from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change. But the latest environmental review stops short of recommending whether the project should be approved. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2013, file photo, Secretary of State John Kerry, right, speaks with reporters during a news conference with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird at the State Department in Washington. The State Department on Friday, March 1, 2013, raised no major objections to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and said other options to get the oil from Canada to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change. But the latest environmental review stops short of recommending whether the project should be approved. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Map shows existing and proposed extension of Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The State Department on Friday raised no major objections to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change.

The latest environmental review stops short of recommending approval of the project, but the review gives the Obama administration political cover if it chooses to endorse the pipeline in spite of opposition from many Democrats and environmental groups. State Department approval of the 1,700-mile pipeline is needed because it crosses a U.S. border.

The lengthy report says Canadian tar sands are likely to be developed, regardless of whether the U.S. approves Keystone XL, which would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas. The pipeline would also travel through Montana, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

The report acknowledges that development of tar sands in Alberta would create greenhouse gases but makes clear that other methods of transporting the oil ? including rail, trucks and barges ? also pose a risk to the environment.

The State Department analysis for the first time evaluated two options using rail: shipping the oil on trains to existing pipelines or to oil tankers. The report shows that those other methods would release more greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming than the pipeline. The Keystone XL pipeline, according to the report, would release annually the same amount of global warming pollution as 626,000 passenger cars.

A scenario that would move the oil on trains to mostly existing pipelines would release 8 percent more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide than Keystone XL. That scenario would not require State Department approval because any new pipelines would not cross the U.S border.

Another alternative that relies mostly on rail to move the oil to the Canadian west coast, where it would be loaded onto oil tankers to the U.S. Gulf Coast, would result in 17 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.

In both alternatives, the oil would be shipped in rail cars as bitumen, a thick, tar-like substance, rather than as a liquid.

The State Department was required to conduct a new environmental analysis after the pipeline's operator, Calgary-based TransCanada, changed the project's route though Nebraska. The Obama administration blocked the project last year because of concerns that the original route would have jeopardized environmentally sensitive land in the Sand Hills region.

The administration later approved a southern section of the pipeline, from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas coast, as part of what President Barack Obama has called an "all of the above" energy policy that embraces a wide range of sources, from oil and gas to renewables such as wind and solar.

The pipeline plan has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over climate change. Republicans and business and labor groups have urged the Obama administration to approve the pipeline as a source of much-needed jobs and a step toward North American energy independence.

Environmental groups have been pressuring the president to reject the pipeline, saying it would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. They also worry about a spill.

Industry groups and Republicans hailed the report, saying the Obama administration was moving closer to approving Keystone XL, which has been under consideration since 2008.

"No matter how many times KXL is reviewed, the result is the same: no significant environmental impact," said Marty Durbin, executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, the largest lobbying group for the oil and gas industry.

The report "puts this important, job-creating project one step closer to reality," Durbin said.

Environmentalists blasted the report.

"This analysis fails in its review of climate impacts, threats to endangered wildlife like whooping cranes and woodland caribou, and the concerns of tribal communities," said Jim Lyon, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation.

If Keystone XL would not speed tar sands development, "why are oil companies pouring millions into lobbying and political contributions to build it?" Lyon asked. "By rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, President Obama can keep billions of tons of climate-disrupting carbon pollution locked safely in the ground."

The draft report begins a 45-day comment period, after which the State Department will issue a final environmental report before Secretary of State John Kerry makes a recommendation about whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

Kerry has promised a "fair and transparent" review of the plan and said he hopes to decide on the project in the "near term." Most observers do not expect a decision until summer at the earliest.

Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said Friday that Canada will respect the U.S. review process and noted the importance of the pipeline to the Canadian economy. "Canada's continued prosperity will be determined by our ability to diversify markets for our energy products," Oliver said.

Obama's initial rejection of the pipeline last year went over badly in Canada, which relies on the United States for 97 percent of its energy exports.

___

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dinacappiello

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-01-Oil%20Pipeline/id-16434a09a5c74f32a870fdc09ba7c319

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SIDE STREETS - Gazette

February 28, 2013 12:01 PM

Perhaps you love the Red Rock Canyon Open Space for all it offers: miles of hiking trails amid dinosaur tracks and fossils of prehistoric trees and extinct sea creatures.

Maybe it?s rocks you love in this geologic extension of the nearby Garden of the Gods. Who isn?t inspired by its 320-million-year-old red sandstone lifted from the depths of the earth?

History buffs like me cherish its history as an Indian camp, a late-19th century quarry, as a site of factories and mills, home to Old West horseback tours, a campground and even a landfill.

Or you just want to know more about John G. Bock, the cowboy/entrepreneur who pieced together the huge parcel we now enjoy after his arrival here in 1923.

Then get to the Old Colorado City History Center, 1 S. 24th St., 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday for your only chance to see an exhibit of memorabilia from the pioneering Bock family.

The one-day exhibit will include many items Bock displayed in his own Western history museum before he closed it and put everything in storage in 1939.

Many items subsequently were bought by avid historian Dave Hughes for preservation.

The exhibit coincides with the 10th anniversary of the city?s $12.5 million purchase of the 789-acre canyon property.

?It?s nice to see how the park was established and how it was saved,? said Sharon Swint, president of the Old Colorado City Historical Society board of directors.

The display will include lanterns, pottery and spurs collected by Bock, who left Philadelphia in 1907 and took a train to Colorado Springs.

?In his autobiography, ?In Red Rock Canyon Land,? Bock wrote of a life working on ranches across the West and prospecting before returning to Colorado Springs in 1923 as a disabled World War I veteran to sell real estate.

He bought a house near the entrance to Red Rock Canyon at 31st Street and Colorado Avenue ? where the family home would remain until 1965.

He also ran the Roundup Saddle Stables and led guided horseback rides into the canyon. Over the years, Bock collected antiques from his travels.

There?s a military uniform as well as scrapbooks, family photo albums and books.

In addition, there will be documentation for what might have been in the canyon if John G. and his sons Richard and John S. Bock had been able to develop the property as they hoped.

They had big plans. They wanted to build a resort, golf course, homes and businesses.

Even a world trade center.

It?s all contained in architect Richard Bock?s nine-volume business plan, which was translated into six languages and distributed around the world in an effort to generate interest.

His plan called for 800 hotel rooms, 3,600 residential units in three-winged towers, some 36 stories tall.

?There was a shopping center of 1 million square feet, convention center, sports arena, theater, museum, a medical research center, communications tower, industrial park and underground parking.

(You can read more about his plan and see photos in a 2004 story I wrote about Richard Bock and his project, with this column at gazette.com.)

The history center will have architect?s drawings and documents related to that and other development efforts.

After Saturday, the artifacts will be available to researchers through the society?s librarian, Swint said.

?This is everyone?s chance to see this stuff,? she said.

?

Read my blog updates at?http://blogs.gazette.com/sidestreets/

?

Source: http://www.gazette.com/news/vogrin-151588-john-richard.html

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